FUNNY OPTICAL ILLUSIONS!

GOOD PHOTOS GONE WRONG 

If seeing is believing, then you have no choice but to totally accept all of the following images as artifacts of reality.

How do you explain all of these quirky yet truly amazing optical illusions? Blame it on your brain’s innate urge to constantly try and make sense of what it sees. When you take a photograph, the camera actually flattens the image it captures, allowing for a bunch of really crazy optical accidents.

Because your brain is always trying to attach sense and logic and familiarity to everything your eyes see, these optical accidents sometimes coincidentally form wayward, but coherent images.

In other words, what you see can look like two things at the same time, what you see can look like something impossible or nonsensical, or what you see can look like something completely unexpected.

An example of an image that appears to be depicting an impossible scenario is the image of a man with this head and body sticking out of a window. The man looks like he is holding a car in his right hand, when actually the car is parked on the ground, a ways below from the camera and the man in the photograph.

A great example of an illusion of two things that appear to be one thing at the same time is the image of the couple posing in jeans and white tank tops. Because of the camera angle and the way the couples’ legs are positioned, it looks like they both share one left leg wearing a high heel. It also looks like the girl’s body is simply part of the guy’s body.

One fun challenge is to try to plan out these crazy images. Some people are great at it, but for the most part these optical illusions happen totally by accident!

SEE JUST HOW FAR FAKE BEGGARS IN CHINA WILL GO TO GET PITY MONEY

Low economic conditions in China’s urban areas have sparked an increase of beggars faking disabilities in an attempt to gain more money. Cities like Shanghai and Hong Kong are littered with na?ve tourists who are more than willing to hand over a few yen to anyone appearing to be handicapped in anyway. And unfortunately, there are plenty of scam artists who are willing to take advantage of this sort of “benefit of the doubt” level of kindness.

One amazing example of this, is a beggar who has constructed a rather elaborate contraption for displaying his false paralytic condition. The beggar’s props for his dishonest charade include a rolling board, which he lays on top of and rolls around with a box strapped to his back for collecting pity money.

A photographer visiting China was able to capture the day the beggar was caught as a fake.

First, the beggar is seen rolling around in the street, pathetically begging unsuspecting strangers for money. Many strangers take pity on him and put money in his box. However, the beggar’s fallacy is exposed in one instance when an exceptionally kind, elderly woman and her family decide to do more than just give cash to the beggar.

In addition to giving him money, the elderly woman and her companion decide to try to provide hands-on help to the disabled beggar. But when they try to take a closer look at his legs, the beggar becomes defensive, and in an act of paranoia, accidentally exposes himself by rising to his knees in an attempt to protect his money.

Once this happens, everyone nearby is immediately aware that the poor, disabled beggar is a fake. The elderly woman confronts the beggar and it appears that she is shaming him for his dishonest conduct. Soon, the police are called and the beggar is asked to stop his charade. While the beggar does eventually give up his act, he does not appear to be the least bit ashamed of what he has done. In fact, the beggar simply continues to count his money in front of everyone around him.

THIS IS WHAT THAT “HEAD OVER HEELS” FEELING LOOKS LIKE – LITERALLY

We’ve all heard the famous saying about “falling head over heels” for someone. In general, the saying refers to the act of falling in love – the gravity-like consequences of being really into someone. But what about standing head over heels instead of falling? What would that feel like, and most importantly, what would that literally look like?

The answer to that question has recently been addressed by one artist who takes the famous saying just a little too literally. Patrice Letarnec, a talented photographer and art director based in France, has become an internet sensation overnight, with his “Head Over Heels” photography series making everyone rethink their visual expectations, as well as what it means to be disoriented both emotionally and physically.

The “Head Over Heels” series features photographs of anonymous individuals wearing a variety of clothing upside-down, while walking, running, and jumping on their hands (instead of their feet). With heads and faces  hidden in pants and skirts, with hands hidden in shoes, and with feet and legs making arm and hand gestures, Letarnec plays with a myriad of elements which contribute to the work’s overall concept. This series plays with ideas involving fashion, figurative portraiture, irony, play-on-words, gravity, and humor.

So far, the “Head Over Heels” series has been circulating the web with almost everyone commenting and confessing that at first, they are totally perplexed by what they see, which is probably why the photographs have gotten so much attention.

The viewer does not even realize that the person in the photograph is in an upside-down position. The hands are hidden in shoes, and for the first several seconds, even the lack of a head on a body seems visually irrelevant.

When looking at the photos, the audience is immediately and simultaneously confused, amused, and delighted. All the photographs in the series were captured in the streets of Paris, adding an even more surreal impact to the work.